This invention relates to a smoking elimination system preferably integrated into a cigarette lighter, but which also may be integrated into a matchbox, cigarette case, or the like, and having means for generating a smoker-use signal each time the user prepares to smoke a cigarette. In the case of a cigarette lighter, the signal is generated by operation of the cigarette lighter; in the case of a matchbox, the signal is generated when the matchbox is opened; and in the case of a cigarette case, the signal is generated when the cigarette case is opened or when a cigarette is removed from the case.
Various smoking elimination systems have been heretofore developed which utilize a timer which establishes a basic timing period during which a cigarette case or cigarette lighter is locked against use or operation. (For example see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,744,953 granted July 10, 1973 to Harry C. Herr, U.S. Pat. No. 2,681,560 to V. C. Shuttleworth et al, granted June 22, 1954, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,643,527 to G. H. Harris, granted Oct. 14, 1952.) When the basic timing period is over, the cigarette lighter or box may be operated or opened to permit a single use of a cigarette involved. Sometimes, the timing period produced by the timer is manually adjustable and generally the timer must be manually reset each time a cigarette is removed from the box or a cigarette lighting operation takes place. In such a smoking elimination system, each time the user desires to smoke, he must try to operate the cigarette lighter or open the cigarette box to determine whether or not he can smoke. During a program of gradual withdrawal with such a smoking elimination system, the cigarette boxes or lighters are frequently handled numerous times without any effect, thereby frustrating the user unnecessarily. Also, when it is desired to increase the locking timing period, the user must consciously make a selection of a new timing period. Also, he may forget to reset the timer after smoking a cigarette, or he may fail to set the timing period when adjustable to an effective timing period. Moreover, a locked cigarette lighter or cigarette box can readily frustrate a user who wishes to deviate from the prescribed schedule. The inconvenience of the smoking elimination systems just described generally make them ineffective, and thus there has been a substantial need for improvements in smoking elimination systems of the type just described.
The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,123, granted to J. A. Giffard, Jan. 28, 1969, recognizes the advantage of a smoking elimination system which makes cigarettes readily available at all times to the user, by eliminating any locking means as described and by providing a positive indication, like the operation of a bell, to signal the user that a basic timing period is over. However, this smoking elimination system has serious disadvantages, such as a timer which must be manually reset to start a new timing period, and the requirement that the timing period must be manually varied if it is desired to increase the timing period during which the user may only smoke a single cigarette.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a smoking elimination system which eliminates most and preferably all of the aforesaid factors of the prior art which make these devices ineffective and inconvenient to use.